All right. Good morning to you once again.
If you would open your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 5,
we're continuing our study. We've been going through Genesis
for several weeks now and we made it through the 1st 4
chapters this morning. We're going to be in Genesis 5
verse one all the way to Genesis 6, verse 8.
The reason being that the text today is primarily a genealogy.
Genesis 51TO68I will not be reading the text upfront simply
because it is a genealogy and it would be pretty time consuming
to read all this text. But I'll read a a good portion
of it as I go through it exposition.
So if you would join me as we pray, asking the Lord to speak
to us this morning, Father, we pray for our ears to be open,
and we pray to you, God, because you are the only one who can
open them. We ask God that you would also
open our hearts, that we would not simply be hearers of the
Word, but that we would also be doers of the Word.
And so we ask that you open our hearts, God, and make us a
people who love your Word, who live Your Word, who speak it,
and who are led by it. I pray this morning God, that
you would give us instruction, especially in the text that may
at first glance not seem to have a whole lot of application or
any real life meaning to us. But help us to see God that all
of Scripture is inspired, all of it is profitable, all of it is
intended to teach, all of it is is is given to us for training
and righteousness that we may be equipped for every good work.
I pray this in Jesus name, Amen. The text that we are going
through today raises more questions than it does answers.
Questions like how did people live to be 900 years old?
Is that even literal? Why didn't Enoch die?
Who are the sons of God? Who are the Nephilim?
Why create humans only to wipe them out?
What does it mean for God to be grieved?
These are just a few of the questions that this text raises,
but I want to caution us that we must be careful and text like
these that we don't get so hung up on the fine print that we
missed the body of the letter and most importantly, that we
miss the author of the letter. It's very common a text like
these for us to kind of just get into debate mode or, or textual
criticism mode or theology mode or biblical interpretation mode
and, and, and we miss what is God speaking to us through this
text. So I want to encourage you that
you would have open hearts to receive what God wants to give
us this morning. So let's start with the next
edition of the text. I try to exposit the word and
then I'll give us application. We're going to start looking at
verses one to two, if you'll follow along in your copy of
God's Word, Genesis 5, one to two.
This is the book of the generations of Adam.
When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God, male
and female. He created them and bless them
and name them man when they were created.
One of the things that I want to point out in this chapter at the
beginning is that many scholars and even many Christians do not
believe that Adam was a real historical person.
They read the maybe the first 5-6 chapters, Genesis or maybe
all the way to Genesis 11 as simply being a story, a myth,
kind of like Harry Potter. It's just, you know, Harry
Potter's not a real person, neither was Adam.
And yet we see right here in this chapter that Adam has a
genealogy. Harry Potter does not have a
genealogy. Adam.
I guess he maybe does, but it's not written in the history
books. In the New Testament, Luke, who
is a doctor, a credible profession, who is, goes and
researches this story of the gospel, writes down the
genealogy of Jesus Christ, and he traces it all the way back to
Adam. So I I do believe that we should
see Adam as a real historical person.
Now, verses 1 to 2 are simply a recapitulation of what we've
already read in chapters 1 and 2.
So I'll just summarize the main points here.
The main points being number one, humans are made in the
image of God #2 humans have two sexes, male and female #3 God
blesses mankind and #4 God named them plural man.
The Hebrew there is Adams where the name Adam comes from.
Adam just means man or but it also can be translated
humankind. And if you're wondering why did
he, why does it say he named them man?
I thought he named them man and woman.
Man here should be translated as humankind.
He named them humankind. Look at verses 3 to 5, when Adam
had lived 130 years, he fathered with a son in his own likeness
after his image and named him Seth.
The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years and
he had other sons and daughters. That's all.
The days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died last week.
Chapter 4 had concluded with God blessing Adam and Eve with a son
to replace the one they lost. God gives them Seth.
Now what we didn't know from last week is that when Seth was
born, Adam was 130 years old. Now this already clues us into
the fact that human biology at the beginning of time did not
work the same way that it does today.
Now we know that there is no age limit for men to have children
necessarily. The Guinness Book Award actually
look this up. This week the Guinness Book
Award records is 92 for a man 92.
But this also means that Eve was 130 years old.
Assuming that God made them the same age, I assume, you know, I
guess he could have made Adam older than her.
I don't, I don't know. But assuming that they were the
same age, it also means that Eve was 130 years old when Seth was
born. So again, human biology didn't
work the same at the beginning of time as it does now.
This gives potential credence to what we discussed last week,
where if you remember when Cain said that he had killed his
brother and he said God banished him and and he's going to be a
wanderer now he says everybody who finds me is going to kill
me. And you wonder, where did these
other people come from? At this point, it's just we just
thought it was Adam, Eve and Cain.
Where are these other people? We assume that Seth was Adam and
Eve's third child. The text never says this.
Text never says this. Seth may very well have been
their 50th child or their hundredth child, because he's
130 right now. So it's very possible that these
other people came from Adam and Eve.
Notice how the narrator describes this.
It says he fathered a son in his own likeness after his image.
What does that mean? In the same way that Seth looks
like his father and he points people to his father, right?
Look at Frank's dad. You see?
You see Frank, you see son, you see dad.
He points people to his dad. God made us to look like him and
to point people to him that when people see us they would see our
Father. The days of Adam after he
fathered Seth were 800 years, which means Adam lived to be 930
years old. Now this raises 2 questions.
A. Is this literal and B if so, how
is this possible? I see no reason not to believe
this is literal. I understand that all scripture
is meant to be taken literally. I understand that poetry is not,
that apocalyptic literature is not, and some people would argue
that that Genesis, the beginning of Genesis, is not meant to be
taken literal. But for me, I see no good reason
not to take this as literal. If we do take this literal, how
is this possible? How can someone live to be 930
years old? Well, there are glass sponges in
the ocean that can live for 10,000 years.
There is a clam that is 507 years old, sharks that are 400
years old, and there is a tortoise right now that's
currently living that's pushing 200.
So I don't find it that hard to believe personally.
Human biology at the beginning of time did not operate the same
as it does today. The text tells us that Adam had
other sons and daughters. We don't know how many, but I
don't want you to miss the last line in verse 5 here.
Look at it. And he died and but what God
said, what would happen if they ate of the forbidden fruit?
You will surely die. Paul tells us that the wages of
sin is death. Adam sinned against God and so
he dies as a result of his sin. Verses 6 to 27 I won't be
reading. You can read that on your own
time if you like, but this is a list of genealogy.
Where of Seth, Seth's genealogy. I do want to point out two
individuals in this list. I want to point out two
individuals. The first is Methuselah.
Look down in verse 25. When Methuselah had lived 187
years old, he fathered Lamech. Methuselah lived after a father,
Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters.
Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years and he died.
Methuselah lived to be 969 years old.
He was only 31 years shy of his Millennium birthday.
What do you buy someone who turns 1000?
He is the oldest listed person in the Bible.
The second person I want to point out is Enoch Enoch, who is
Methuselah's father. Look at verse 21 to 24.
When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.
Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years
and had other sons and daughters.
Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years.
Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him.
Look at how God describes this man.
He walked with God. The Septuagint, the Greek
translation of the Old Testament.
Has Enoch pleased God? What incredible statements.
What does it mean to walk with God?
It means he lived in close fellowship with God.
He did not walk with the world. He walked with God.
Now, what's interesting about Enoch is that he's actually
mentioned twice in the New Testament.
The first is in Jude 14 to 15. I'll read that for you.
Jude 14 to 15. It was also about these that
Enoch the 7th from Adam prophesied, saying, Behold, the
board comes with 10 thousands of his holy ones to execute
judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their
deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an
ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly
sinners have spoken against him. Now that's telling to us because
that means that Enoch may very well have been the first prophet
of God, the very first person in human history who warns God's
people of the coming judgement for their sin.
Enoch may have been the first prophet.
Second passage in the New Testament, Hebrews 11/5 in the
so-called Hall of faith. By faith, Enoch was taken up so
that he should not see death, and he was not found because God
had taken him. Now before he was taken, he was
commended as having pleased God. Enoch actually becomes one of
two people in Scripture that God took up to heaven without
experiencing death, the other being Elijah.
Enoch and Elijah are the two people that we know of that did
not experience death. Now the question we want to know
is why not? Why did not?
Why did these two individuals not experience death?
Why did God take up these two people to heaven without dying?
We don't know. There's there's theories and
theories and theories. We don't know.
Scripture never says, but I do like what 1 commentator writes.
He says this. This may be 1 indication in this
chapter that long life per SE is not the most sacred and
honorable blessing that can come from God.
To be lifted aloft into God's immediate presence is perhaps
more of an honor. Look at verse 28 to 32.
When Lamech had lived 182 years. He fathered the son, called his
name Noah, saying out of the ground, The Lord has cursed.
This one shall bring us relief from our work and from the
painful work of our hands. Lamech lived after he fathered
Noah 595 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died after
Noah was 500 years old. Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and
Japheth. Now the narrow takes time to
tell us about Lamech. This is not the same Lamech and
Genesis 4. Don't get them confused.
Genesis 4. Lamech is from Cain, Genesis 5.
Lamech is from Seth, two different Lamechs.
Lamech has a son and he names him Noah.
Why does he name him Noah? He names him Noah because Noah
sounds like one of the Hebrew words Forrest.
Also, it sounds like the Hebrew word that's used in this passage
for relief. That Hebrew word for relief can
be translated as comfort. Lamech prophecies over his son
and says this one, this son is going to bring us relief,
comfort, rest. Now that's somewhat of an ironic
prophecy because it does come true, but not in the way that
Lamech probably intended. I doubt he intended it will come
true through a flood that wipes out the humankind.
Lamech lives 595 years after Noah.
Later we will learn that Noah was 600 years old when the flood
started. So if you wonder like why wasn't
Lamech on the ark because he passed away five years before
the flood started, then we learn and the last verse in this
genealogy that Noah was 500 years old when he had three
sons. Think about that.
In 1970, the average age of fathers in America having their
first child was 27. Today it is 32.
No one might skew these numbers just a little bit.
Can you imagine his parents badgering him for 500 years?
When am I going to see some grandkids?
Yeah, look at chapter 6, verses 1 to 3, when man began to
multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them.
The sons of God saw that the daughters of man were
attractive, and they took as their wives any they chose.
Then the Lord said, My Spirit shall not abide in man forever,
for he is flesh. His day shall be 120 years.
So as we have seen in this genealogy, if you read on your
own time, you will begin to see that mankind has begun to
multiply and to fill the earth. This was God's intention.
God told Adam and Eve, be fruitful, multiply, subdue the
earth, fill the earth. But as daughters began to be
born to them, the text says that the sons of God saw that these
women were attractive and they took as their wives any they
chose. Now that raises so many
questions. What does this statement mean?
I'm going to limit it to two questions for the sake of time.
Number one, who are the sons of God?
Who are the sons of God? There are three main
possibilities here. A fallen angels.
Angels who were perfect and they fell from the Lord and they took
the form of humans. So fallen angels who took the
form of humans, that's AB they are godly descendants of Seth,
godly descendants of Seth. And if this is, if you go with
this theory that you say, well, why was this wicked for them?
It would be wicked because they married wicked Canaanite
daughters. In other words, this is kind of
like the first instance of unyoked marriages.
So you have godly men from Seth marrying wicked women
descendants from Cain and you have on yoke marriages.
That's that's also a theory. See, this is powerful tyrants.
The reason they're called sons of God is kind of the way we,
you know, emperors and kings were called sons of God, right?
This may be powerful tyrants who were demon possessed.
Which of these three should we go with?
I believe A is the most likely explanation.
I believe A that they are fallen angels who took the form of
humans is the most likely expression for two reasons #1
The only other usage of this phrase occurs in Job.
It says that when the sons of God came to present themselves
to the Lord, that's only the time this phrase is used.
Sons of God. And in that passage, I think it
clearly refers to angelic beings.
That's the first reason. The second reason is I don't
think it they would be descendants of Seth.
Because there seems to be a distinction between sons of God
and daughters of man. It seems to be that the sons are
sons of God, like lowercase Elohim.
Not not not sons of Yahweh, sons of Elohim.
Elohim is used very broadly in the Old Testament, and that
there's the daughters of man. So I don't think the Seth theory
works for me. But that interpretation itself
is not without problems, right? It's like that.
You're telling me that demons came and got married to women.
What does it mean they took wives?
That's the second question. What does it mean they took
wives? This is actually described in
the pseudopigrapha. Pseudopigrapha is an apocryphal
work. We don't believe it's inspired,
but if you want to read on your, we're not going to look into it
because for time's sake. But if you want to read on your
own time, I would highly encourage you to read this.
It's fascinating. It's not inspired, but read
first Enoch six to seven, first Enoch six to seven.
Read on your own time please. It's quite fascinating and it
describes this. This may be what Jude is
referring to. We know that Jude did quote from
the Apocrypha and Jude and Jude 6 writes this and the angels who
did not stay within their own position of authority, but left
their proper dwelling. That may be a reference to this,
that angels, fallen angels, God had given them a position of
authority and they left that position of authority came to
this earth to intermingle with these attractive women.
Now this was evil. We know this because as a result
of this action, God says this, God says my spirit shall not
abide in man forever, for he is flesh.
His days shall be 120 years. Now, what does that statement
mean? Commentaries on that statement
are pages and pages and pages long.
I'll give you what I think it's saying.
I believe that the way the reason that people were able to
live 708 hundred 900 years is because of God's Spirit.
In other words, if God wanted to sustain me or you for 900 years,
he could do it right. We all believe that.
And God's Spirit allowed these people to live for 708 hundred,
900 years long. But due to the great wickedness
with which they engaged, right, the longer they live, they they
engaged in more and more wickedness.
God says my Spirit will no longer sustain them to live this
long. He says I will limit their
lifespan to 120 years. Now some commentators take 120
years to be the time frame before the flood will come.
Some some take it as that 100 like he says I will limit it to
120 years, meaning they will live for 120 years and then the
flood's going to come that. That's a pretty good time frame.
That's a good theory. I tend to interpret it, though,
as the length of human life. Some people will point at that
and poke at that and say well, Abraham lived to 175, Isaac to
180, and Jacob 147. I think that may just be a delay
before God enacts this or it could be an exception that God
makes to the patriarchs after those 3 patriarchs.
There's no no recorded person who lives past 120.
And yes, for you precise people, there are people who have lived
to like 121 and 122. The Bible is not being a math
book or a science book here. It's giving a round Number.
Most people live, don't live past 120.
Look at verse 4. The Nephilim were on the earth
in those days and also afterward when the sons of God came into
the daughters of man and they bore children to them.
These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
Now the question everybody wants to know when they read this
passage is who are the Nephilim? I don't believe I have ever gone
and asked the pastor without being asked, who are the
Nephilim? I've answered it.
I answer it every year. I'm going to answer it again.
Ask the pastor's coming up again.
Feel free to ask it again if you don't remember.
Nephilim is a transliterated Hebrew word.
It's a transliterated word. So it it, it, it's it.
Nobody knows what it means if you read it, if you, if you
Google this or put it in AI and and tell this, nobody knows what
it means. All right, if we were to take it
literally, but you got to be careful with, you know, taking
things literally, right? Like it's like if you translator
the, the word butterfly, like somebody would think what means
when butterflies, it's like, well, no, that's not what a
butterfly is, right? You have to be careful taking
something literally when you translate it to another
language. But if we took it literally, it
means fallen ones. Fallen ones, the King James
version, if you have King James, I think even new King James.
I didn't look this up, but I think new King James does as
well. The King James version
translates it as giants. Giants.
There is no evidence to suggest this is a correct translation.
Even if they were giants, I don't think it means they're
like 30 foot giants as we think of them, right?
When we think of like Disney and there's like a 30 foot giant,
you know, I don't think it's, they would be like 7 to 9 foot
giants, right? When we talk about, I mean, if
you see a 7 foot person, you think that's a giant, you see a
nine foot person that you would think that's a giant, right?
I think they'd be 7 to 9 foot giants.
So perhaps before the flood, people lived longer and they
were a lot taller. Perhaps.
Many scholars believe that the Nephilim, though, may actually
be the descendants of the sons of God and women.
So when these sons of God went and had relations with these
women, their descendants were the Nephilim.
If so, that would make them a form of demigod.
And some scholars argue that if that's the case, why God sent
the flood in part was to destroy these descendants.
God was so displeased with these descendants that he sent the
flood in part to destroy them. That's the again, that's theory.
The narrator further describes them as the mighty men who were
of old, the men of renown. What does that mean?
It means that these were men of reputation, They were men of
fame. They were mighty.
I imagine if you were a giant you would be a mighty.
Look at verse 5. The Lord saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually in Reformed
theology, which is what we teach at this church.
You don't have to be Reformed to be at this church, but it is
what will be taught in Reformed theology.
We have a doctrine called total depravity.
This is one of the verses that's used to support this doctrine.
Total depravity does not mean that we are the worst possible
sinners that we could be right. Hitler was not the worst
possible he. He could have killed 6,000,001
Jew or two. We're not the worst possible
sinners we could be. It means that every part of us
is depraved. There's no part of us that's not
depraved. Our hearts, our minds, our
wills, our emotions, our thoughts, our actions, our
words, all of it is depraved. It's totally depraved.
Notice God doesn't just call man bad, but wicked.
God doesn't just say that they were wicked, but that is
wickedness was great. God doesn't say that this was
just some of the time, some of the time their wickedness was
great. God says that every intention of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
How did you notice the absolutes that are used there every only
continually? Look at verses 6 to 8 last
passage. And the Lord regretted that he
had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I've created from
the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and
birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Now these these 3 verses raise a myriad of theological questions,
don't they? What does it mean for God to
have regret? What does it mean that it
grieved them to his heart? What does it mean that he was
sorry that he made them? If you just read these verses at
face value, like if you just read them at face value, you
will get some messed up theology.
Like God makes mistakes. There actually is a we, we have
a former member who, who basically that was what they
decided they were like, you know what?
I've just decided to believe that God makes mistakes.
That's how I'm going to solve this problem.
He just makes mistakes. He's like, you know, he's, he's,
he's a person like all of us. He makes mistakes or that God
can regret his decisions, that God did this and he was like,
man, I knew I shouldn't have made this world.
That's not what these verses are teaching.
We believe that God is omnipotent.
He's omniscient, He's Omni sapient, all wise.
He never makes mistakes, He never regrets his decisions.
And if that's true, then you would say, well then brother,
what are these verses teaching? If he doesn't have regrets, if
he doesn't make mistakes, what are these verses teaching?
This is one of those places where it's helpful to understand
the original language. The Hebrew words in this passage
for regret and sorry are the same Hebrew word.
Regret and sorry are the same Hebrew word.
It is a broad term that is translated some 11 different
ways. I think grieved is the more
accurate translation here. Grieved God doesn't have have
regret the way that humans do. He doesn't have regret the way
that we do. First Samuel 1529 Also the glory
of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man that
he should have regret. God doesn't feel regret, but he
does feel grief. His grief is not like ours, but
he does feel something that the best we can describe is grief.
God is so grieved by man's wickedness that he decides to do
something about it. He says I will blot out man whom
I have created from the face of the land.
We'll look at next week and I want you to consider that if the
text stopped at verse 7, if if it if it's stopped at verse 7,
that might be the end of the Bible.
The Bible is is 6 chapters and seven verses long.
We might think God is going to either completely start over or
maybe he's just going to end humanity altogether.
But verse 8 offers us a ray of hope.
In the midst of tremendous darkness, Noah found favor in
the eyes of the Lord. Noah is the first person in
Scripture of whom it is said they found favor in the eyes of
the Lord. And next week we will see why
that matters so much. Stop their exposition,
exposition, application of the text.
I have eight points #1 Our lives are 110th the duration God
intended them to be. Make the best use of time
because the days are evil. Our lives are 110th of what God
intended them to be. Make the best use of time
because the days are evil. The current life expectancy in
the United States is 79, with men being around 76 and women
being around 81. The country with the highest
life expectancy is Monaco at 86 years.
And although we may know someone who's pushing 90 or 95 or even
100, I still have a grandma who is alive who's pushing 100.
Most of us get around 80 years in this life.
Our brother Ivan passed away at the age of 72.
Although 80 years may seem like a long time, especially the
younger you are, for my boys 80 years might as well be 8
trillion years. I want you to consider the ages
in this chapter. Adam is 930, Enos 905, Keenan
910, Mahalo 895, Jared 962, Methuselah 969, and then Lamech
who died at the ripe young age of 777.
Our lives are 110th the duration of what God originally intended
them to be. And the Apostle Paul tells us in
the book of Ephesians make the best use of the time because the
days are evil. Imagine you went to Disney World
or Six Flags or you know, somewhere like that.
Imagine if you were only going to take one trip of your whole
life. You knew it.
You're like, you get one trip or one cruise or you know, like
you're not taking any more trips.
You get one trip when you go to let's let's say it's Disney
World. You go there and normally you
spend 10 hours in the park. A lot of that time you just kind
of walking around, eating a Turkey leg, getting on rides
that really aren't that fun, shopping, talking, deciding
where we're going to go next. But imagine when you first got
to the park, you were told your tickets are good for one hour,
not Ten 1. You have one hour to enjoy this
park. Would that not change how you
spend your time? Maybe we'll skip that Turkey
leg. Would it not change how we spend
our time? Our lives are one 10th the
duration that God intended them to be.
Make the best use of time because the days are evil.
Two. There is a difference between
reading a weather forecast and standing out in the rain.
There is a difference between reading a weather forecast and
standing out in the rain. I want to draw your attention to
a phrase in chapter 5 in the genealogy.
There's a phrase in chapter 5. It occurs 8 times in this
chapter. And here it is.
And he died. Over and over again.
The narrator reminds us that all of these men died except for
Enoch. Now, why does that matter?
We all know we're going to die. If I were to ask, I mean, I
could ask the youngest person, Audrey or or Naom, I could ask
the, you know, will you die one day?
We, we know this. We know it from a young age.
We know, we all know we're going to die.
But the difference between knowing this and feeling this is
the difference between reading a weather forecast and standing
out in the rain. The person who reads a weather
forecast knows it's going to rain.
The person who stands out in the rain not only knows it, they
feel it. We had Ivan's celebration of
life this past Friday. There was one verse that I just
could not get out of my head. Ecclesiastes 72 It is better to
go to the House of mourning than to go to the House of feasting.
For this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay
it to heart. The living will lay it to heart.
What does that mean? It means that death is not some
abstract concept in the distant future that I don't really think
about that much as I stood there looking at Ivan's body.
I do this at every funeral. I know some people, when they
pay their respects, they just walk right by.
They never even look at the casket.
Ivan asked me, Should we have an open casket?
I said, what's your decision, Ivan?
But I I would so we did. Why?
Because I am potential to stand there and look as I stood there
and looked at his body. I stand in the rain.
I feel my mortality. 3 Genealogies comprise at least 5%
of the Bible, God thought they were important.
Genealogies comprise at least 5% of the Bible, God thought they
were important. I get that genealogies are not
the most exciting parts of Scripture, right?
I, you know, I, if I were to, you know, put on YouTube a
sermon titled like genealogies, I don't know, 2 views, you know,
and it might have been an accident.
They accidentally clicked on it. I get that genealogies are not
the most exciting parts of Scripture.
I highly doubt that anybody is reading a genealogy at their
wedding. I highly doubt that Kevin and
Jessica are going to have this read and their wedding today.
I highly doubt anybody's reading the genealogy at their funeral.
I highly doubt that anybody's using a genealogy as their theme
verse for their church retreat, but genealogies comprise at
least 5% of the Bible, at least. Maybe some scholars say as much
as 10, which means that God thought they were important.
And the question is why? Why?
There are many reasons. I did a Friday night Series A
couple weeks a couple years ago. I gave you like 16 reasons why I
think they're important. I'll give you one.
I'll give you 1. Today, genealogies remind us how
insignificant we are and how significant God is.
I would imagine if you live to be 900 years old, you would be a
significant person. History, right?
Like if you were on this earth, I think it like Gandalf, you
know who's like been around for like forever, you know you would
be a significant person on this earth if you live 9 and and yet
Enosh, Keenan, Mahalo, Jared, Methuselah all live 9 centuries
and we know nothing about them. Can you imagine living for 900
years and nobody knowing nothing about your life?
Tomorrow is Memorial Day. If you have never visited a War
Memorial or a War Museum, I would highly encourage you to.
I've had the privilege of visiting the World War 2 museum
in New Orleans three times. And you when you go into these,
you know, there's a like a Vietnam War memorial or a
museum. They have, they, they list these
names of these men and, and now women who have died in these
wars. And as, as, as I stand there and
I read these names, I think to myself, what if my name was up
there? You know, it's just, it's like
there's a whole wall of names and, and I'm just like, my whole
life is summed up in one inch. Genealogies have a way of
reminding us I am insignificant and God is significant.
For what legacy should we strive for to be someone who walked
with God? What legacy should we strive for
to be someone who walked with God despite our insignificance?
That doesn't mean we shouldn't be striving for a legacy.
We should. We should all be striving for a
legacy. The question is what legacy?
What legacy should we be striving for?
I asked ChatGPT. Can you give me several examples
of what legacy I should be striving for?
Just want to see what it would say.
Here are some of the examples that gave me a reputation for
truthfulness and trustworthiness.
Serving others. These are all different.
I said give me one line these so these are all separate.
Serving others without needing recognition.
Wisdom that guided younger people well.
A person who finished well. Leaving people better than you
found them. Loving your family
sacrificially. Now, those are all great
legacies, but I have to be honest, if there is a legacy
that I would want to leave, it's the legacy of Enoch.
He walked with God. What are people going to
remember about you? When people stand up at your
funeral and they talk about you, what are they going to remember?
Your kindness, your generosity, your humor, your personality.
Here's what people remembered about Enoch.
He walked with God. Church family.
Be a man or woman who walks with God.
There's no greater legacy than this one.
Five, if God were to take you home today, would you be
satisfied with your life if God were to give you the same
privilege that he gave Enoch if he were to take you home today?
Like you didn't even die. He just took you.
You're walking to the church lot and and you, you didn't make it.
I love verse 24. It's one of my favorite verses
in Genesis. Enoch walked with God and he was
not for God took him. What was he doing at the time,
right? Maybe he had just planted a
garden. You know, he's like, I just took
up gardening. I just planted a garden.
I'm waiting for my first crop to come up and right before, you
know, maybe his wife was pregnant with their first child.
Well, we know that not to be the case, but I guess Methuselah
second child, maybe one of his kids was pregnant with his first
grandchild. Maybe he had just built a new
house and was excited to live in it.
Maybe he had just started a new business, Airbnb for shepherds.
But none of that mattered because God said it's time to
come home. I'm going to take you.
Enoch left this earth at 365 years old.
Now that sounds like a long time, but that's young compared
to all the other men in this chapter.
That's that's almost 1/3 of their length.
And it got me thinking, if God were to take me today, right now
at age 44, married with four kids, if God would take me,
would I be satisfied with my life?
Would you be satisfied with your life?
Would you feel like man? There were so many things I
wanted to do. There were so many things I
wanted to see. There were so many things I
wanted to experience. Or would you consider it a
tremendous blessing that God took you?
Would you consider it to be the most blessed person in the world
that God said come home? God doesn't consult with Enoch.
He doesn't even give him a heads up.
He doesn't even give him a choice.
He doesn't give him a timeline. He just takes them.
If God were to give you this incredible privilege today,
whether you are 12 or 52, would you be satisfied with your life?
6 Lust is no harmless sin. Lust is no harmless sin.
When I use the word lust, I don't simply mean the sexual
type of lust. The Bible speaks of lust as
anything that we desire that is forbidden.
That's how the Bible describes lust.
Anything we desire that is forbidden.
The devil will tell us the lie that lust is not that bad.
It's not that bad. You'll hear it in phrases,
right? I'm just curious.
Just curious. Look, but don't touch.
I'm just window shopping. And no harm in window shopping.
I I know where my boundaries are, all right.
I know where they are. A quick little glance never
killed anyone. It don't cost anything to look.
Once I see it, I can finally stop thinking about it.
Such is the danger of the enemy's lies.
Why did he fall into sin? Because she lusted after the
forbidden fruit. Why did the sons of God fall
into sin? Because they lusted after the
daughters of men. The Israelites lusted for meat.
Aiken lusted after forbidden spoil.
Kora lusted for power. Gehisy lusted after the King's
reward. David lusted after another man's
wife. Lust is no harmless sin.
In all of these examples, it ended very badly for them.
Lust will destroy us. Be careful.
Church Family 7 Apart from Christ, we are not good people,
we are wicked and evil. Apart from Christ, we are not
good people, we are wicked and evil.
Several years ago, I remember having a conversation with
someone in our church about whether people are basically
good or basically bad. The conversation was originally
political. They was, he was basically
making an argument that Republicans think that people
are basically bad and Democrats think they're basically good.
And that was the difference. And I was, that may be way too
broad of a stroke to paint with, but then we got into theology.
I was like, are people basically good or are they basically bad
for, for Christians? I thought it was assumed that we
all knew that people are basically bad.
I I just thought that was assumed but I discovered that's
not a doctrine that all Christians hold.
We hear statements in the world right?
He's a good person. I believe people are basically
good. Everyone has a good heart deep
down. People are born inherently good.
It's society that corrupts them. Most people are just trying to
do the right thing. No one wakes up wanting to be
the bad guy. People are generally
well-intentioned. Those sound like kind phrases,
but is this what the Bible teaches?
Is this what the Bible teaches? Verse 5 says the Lord saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every
intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually
friends, apart from Christ, we are not good people.
We are wicked and evil. Now you might think, OK, what's
the point of pointing this out? You want us to feel bad.
What's the what's the point of point us out?
There are many reasons why this doctrine, why total depravity
matters, why many reasons, but I'll give you 2.
A We have a problem with the problem of evil.
We have a problem with the problem of evil, problem of
evil. The basic premise is this.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
There are no good people. There are no good people.
B Second reason. If we don't see ourselves as
wicked and evil apart from Christ, if you don't see
yourself, especially if you grew up in a conservative or moral
family, if you followed the rules, towed the line, if you if
you don't see yourself as wicked and evil apart from Christ, then
we don't need saving from that much.
We simply have a slight limp and Christ is a crutch for that limp
rather than my legs were paralyzed and Christ gave me the
ability to walk. Many Christians see Christ as an
added bonus to their life. He made my life better.
He didn't make your life better, He made your life.
You don't have a life without Him.
You were dead because you are wicked and evil and so am I.
Do you see what he saved you from?
A last point. God is not a robot unaffected by
our choices. He is a person who feels and who
grieves. God is not a robot unaffected by
our choices. He is a person who feels and who
grieves. I can think of at least two
categories where this matters. A is the doctrine called divine
impossibility. B.
With the problem of evil, Again, a divine impossibility.
What is that doctrine? This is a doctrine that teaches
that God does not experience human emotions, pain, distress,
and cannot be affected by external forces.
In other words, divide, like God doesn't have emotions the way we
do. But we say that God is angry.
His anger is not like ours. We say that God is grieved.
His grief is not like ours. We say God is sad.
He's not sad like us. There's a divine impossibility.
We cannot affect God. Nothing we can do can
objectively and ultimately affect God.
This, this is true. This is a true doctrine, even if
it's a mystery. But sometimes Christians will
take this too far and they will think, well, that's true.
You don't really care about my son Matt.
I mean, little old Matt in Renton, WA, you know, a little
old look on the computer or a little harsh statement to the
wife. Like it.
I don't really I mean don't affect God.
God's got bigger things to fry. He's like got the Iran war to
worry about and and and children dying in the Congo, right, Like
like God. No, no, no, no.
B The problem of evil. One of the ways that some people
will solve this problem of evil is they will say God doesn't
care about the evil in the world.
Why is there evil in this world? Because God doesn't care about
it. He doesn't care.
Neither of these are true. God is not a robot unaffected by
our choices. He is a person who feels and who
grieves. There is some measure of
anthropomorphism going on here, but as the NIV translates this,
the Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his
heart was filled with pain. God himself said his own words.
He said, I am grieved that I made them.
God is grieved by my sin. He is grieved by the sin in this
world, and that is a good thing. Why?
Because He was grieved enough to do something about it.
The first time He sent a flood. For the second time He sent a
son. It is God's grief over our sin
that moves him to send a son to save us from it.
Let's pray.